at sign, n.
Brit. /ˈat sʌɪn/, U.S. /ˈæt ˌsaɪn/
[‹ at prep. + sign n.]
The symbol {at}, read in English as ‘at’. Cf. commercial A n., commercial at n. at commercial adj. and n. Additions.
The earliest evidence so far found for the symbol is in 16th-cent. European mercantile records, where it is used to represent units of measure (Italian anfora (see amphora n. 2) and Spanish and Portuguese arroba (see arroba n.)). In English, ‘{at}’ has been used since at least the 18th cent. in expressing the number of items in relation to price (at prep. 27).Since the development of e-mail in the early 1970s, {at} has also become a standard international symbol in e-mail addresses, separating the user name from the domain name. This choice of symbol is credited to Ray Tomlinson, U.S. computer engineer and designer of the first electronic mail system:
| 1996 K. Hafner & M. Lyon Where Wizards stay up Late vii. 192 ‘I got there first, so I got to choose any punctuation I wanted,’ Tomlinson said. ‘I chose the {at} sign.’ The character also had the advantage of meaning ‘at’ the designated institution. |
| [1972 A. Bhushan Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 414. 1 Others currently involved with FTP include Arvola Chan (AC{at}MIT-DMCG),..Greg Hicks (HICKS{at}UTAH) [etc.].] 1977 D. H. Crocker et al. Standard for Format of ARPA Network Text Messages 17 Full hierarchical addresses..are indicated as a series of words, separated by at-sign or at indications. 1980 E. Charniak & C. K. Riesbeck Artific. Intelligence Programming 35 A comma followed by an at-sign ({at}) indicates that we should..‘splice in’ the results. 1982 J. B. Postel Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 808. 6 Outlawed by this rule are: a. Spaces in user names. b. Multiple at signs in mailboxes. 1991 B. MacWhinney Childes Project iv. 32 Other nonletter characters such as the plus sign (+) or the at sign ({at}) can be used within words. 1996 Independent 22 Jan. (Suppl.) 11/1 Neither of us could think of anything better than the ‘at sign’ for {at}. |